NEWS HEADLINES

By Messenger Staff | Published Saturday, March 9, 2013Tags: Wise County

A Wise County couple has been indicted on state jail felony child abandonment charges after allegedly leaving their 18-month-old son alone in a locked trailer home for hours Jan. 19.

Thomas Wade Harris, 29, and Tiffany Elizabeth Barnes, 34, were both indicted by a Wise County grand jury on one count of abandon endanger a child with intent to return and abandon endanger a child criminal negligence. The two had previously been arrested on the more serious charge of abandoning a child and leaving in imminent danger to bodily injury, a second-degree felony.

Wise County Sheriff’s investigators, responding to a tip about a child being left alone in a home for hours, found the small child in his crib in an “extremely hot” room heated by an electric space heater, according to a Sheriff’s Office press release. The indictment also indicates the child did not have adequate food or water.

Medics transported the child to Wise Regional Health System in Decatur to be checked out. He was not injured.

Barnes and Harris told investigators they had to make an emergency trip to the hospital but didn’t want to wake their young son, who was sleeping in his crib. The couple took their 5-year-old son with them to the hospital.

Investigators suspect the young child was left alone at the home in the 1300 block of County Road 4797 southwest of Boyd for approximately eight hours.

The grand jury met Feb. 27 and also returned the following felony indictments:

Stephen Ray Meek, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle

Stephen Ray Meek, possession of a controlled substance – methamphetamine, less than one gram

Malissa Ann Barry, possession of a controlled substance – methamphetamine, less than one gram

Brandi Jett Barber, possession of a controlled substance – methamphetamine, less than one gram